Chapter: Homunculus!

In another part of the labyrinth, moments before Fives second mana release. Mira and her group were making their way to their fourth orb. Mira's group consisted of Josh, Anne, Leo, and a female desert elf named Aerin.

"It's easy to lose yourself in a labyrinth as big as this but with my good sense of direction we will always be on the right track," Mira said as she walked in front of everyone

"I'm so bored! I want to fight something or someone!" Leo complained as he tightened his fist

"We just finished fighting a horde of monsters!" Josh added

"A lion doesn't stop eating until it's had its fill, so I need to fight until I'm satisfied!" Leo replied as his hair spontaneously burst into flames like a lion's mane

"You lower class-men are so weird," Josh said as he looked at Leo's flaming hair "I'm so happy I went to a proper school where higher class was taught"

"It sounds like you're picking a fight!" Leo replied with a toothy grin

While Leo and Josh argued, Aerin walked behind Leo while warming up her hand near Leo's flaming hair like it was a campfire.

"So warm!" Aerin said with a satisfied expression as she was as close as possible to Leo's flaming hair without touching it

Anne was standing beside Aerin and she was confused about Aerin's actions. "Aerin don't you Desert Elves naturally have a warm body temperature of around 50 to 60°? " Anne asked

"Yes that's right cutie, we can even raise our body temperature higher, but I like the feel and sensations that open fire gives you" Aerin replied rubbing her hands together near the fire

"Interesting" Aerin replied

Before Mira's group could travel any further, a sudden intense pressure fell upon them, this pressure came from Five's second mana release, even though Five was not near them his manna release was strong enough to reach them.

The pressure was so powerful that Anne fell unconscious but before her body could hit the ground she fell on a pile of soft sand that was floating in front of her, a spell casted by Aerin. Once Anne was on the sand, the sand closed up wrapping itself around Anne into a sand bubble.

"Sleep comfortably," Aerin said as she looked at the ball of sand

Josh dropped to his knees unable to stand on his feet due to the sheer pressure of the mana release and killing intent. Leo forced his body not to give in as he stood strong, Mira stood firm she was doing fine under all this pressure the same goes for Aerin. Just when they thought this couldn't get any worse, the manna pressure intensified even higher, this was due to Eldrin, Tatsuo, and I releasing our manna.

Josh couldn't handle it anymore his body gave in and he finally fell to the ground unconscious. The pressure was getting to Leo but with Leo's strong willpower he pushed through it and held his ground. After a few seconds, the mana release finally vanished.

"What was that?..." Leo asked as he was panting, his face covered in sweat

"I don't know exactly but I sensed Ken's mana alongside two other familiar ones...but there was another one, which I didn't recognize" Mira explained as she looked around

Before anyone else could say something their attention was immediately turned to a shining yellow light in the short distance, which was emitting high levels of destructive magic. Within a flash, a concentrated beam of lightning fired from the yellow light and made its way towards Mira's group at insanely high speed.

Before the beam of lightning could strike them, a huge amount of sand rose from the ground and wrapped itself around everyone, enclosing them into a huge dome. The beam of lightning struck the sand with heavy impact but it could not penetrate it, the lightning soon disappeared and as soon as it did Aerin's sand dome deformed into the ground.

"Thanks for the protection!" Mira said looking at Aerin

"It's fine, anything for a pretty face like you" Aerin smirked

"Finally a fight!" Leo said as he stood ready looking at the direction the lighting came from

From the distant shadows, a homunculus walked towards Mira and her group with the crystal in its forehead shining yellow. Before anyone else could react Leo charged at the homunculus with his entire body burning with wild flames.

"Fist of the brilliant flames, exploding impact!" Leo shouted as he entered the homunculus range

All the flames that surround Leo's body, gathered into his right hand, forming a giant ball of fire around it. Leo launched his right fist towards the homunculus like a rocket, the homunculus blocked Leo's fist using the back of its right arm.

The impact of Leo's attack caused a crack in the homunculus arm, the homunculus grabbed Leo's head using its left hand and raised him in the air before smashing him into the ground head first. Before the homunculus could repeat the action, a giant hand made out of sand grabbed the homunculus and pinned it to the ground while another hand grabbed Leo and brought him back to the group.

"Don't go dying now, I need you to keep me warm" Aerin said looking at Leo as the sand hand placed him on the ground

"No more charging recklessly, we need to work together to take it out," Mira said as a broad sword appeared in her right hand. "Aerin you give us support from the back, Leo use your destructive powers to assist me" Mira ordered everyone before she took a battle-ready stance

"She's so hot…" Aerin muttered to herself as she looked at Mira with hearts in her eyes

"Leave it to me" Leo added on as he clashed both his fist together, igniting them in flames "Creation Magic: Lions Pride"

A big red magic circle appeared underneath Leo's feet and from the magic circle, four lions created out of scorching flames appeared next to Leo. The homunculus freed itself from the giant sand hand that was pinning him to the ground and started to make its way to Mira and her group.

At Leo's command, the four lions charged at the homunculus and attacked it with flaming bites and scratches, each of the attacks dealt by the lions caused burning effects on the homunculus. The homunculus tried hitting the lions but its hands simply went through them since they were just fire.

While the homunculus was busy trying to deal with the lions, Mira dashed towards the homunculus with her sword held right in her hand, upon entering its distance Mira swung her sword towards the homunculus abdomen, slicing through it completely.

The homunculus upper body fell on the ground detached from its lower body but it was far from over and the homunculus was still very much alive. While on the ground the homunculus fired a beam of ice from its left hand directly at Mira from point-blank range. Mira quickly jumped high into the air barely avoiding the ice beam since her left leg was caught up in the attack and frozen solid. Mira landed on her right foot a few meters away from the homunculus.

"Well I didn't expect that," Mira said looking at her frozen leg. "Leo!" Mira called out while keeping her eye on the homunculus

"I'm already on it!" Leo replied, already knowing what Mira was talking about

One of the lions ran up to Mira and sunk its fangs into Mira's frozen leg and within a few seconds, the ice melted away freeing Mira's leg once more. The homunculus crawled on the ground towards Mira with its forehead shining yellow and sparking with lightning, Mira took a sturdy defence stance and Leo created a wall of fire in front of Mira.

As soon as the homunculus fired the beam of lighting a portal appeared in front of the wall of flames and a second one appeared above the homunculus body, the lighting entered through the first portal then exited through the second portal, striking the homunculus with its own beam of lightning.

"Spatial Magic: Wormhole," Anne said from within the sand ball

The sand ball opened up revealing Anne to now be conscious and perfectly fine. In front of Anne was a small floating laptop that had countless spells written on the screen. The lighting soon disappeared and so did the portals, the homunculus's entire body was smoking but it was still very much alive.

Multiple black tentacles crawled out of the lower part of the homunculus's body and stretched out attaching itself to its lower body part, slowly reattaching itself to its lower body making the homunculus whole again.

"This thing sure has some surprises," Mira said looking at the homunculus

"Aerin...thank you for healing me," Annie said looking at Aerin with a light blush

"Awww, you're so cute!" Aerin replied, "by the way what's with the laptop?"

"Oh this is my grimoire also a super laptop" Annie replied

"Wow that's neat, science and magic in one" Aerin said with a smile

"If you two are done, then get ready it's going to attack again," Leo said looking at the homunculus

The homunculus pointed its left hand at Mira and pointed its right hand at Josh who was still laying on the ground unconscious. Simultaneously it fired Ice at Mira and the others and fired fire at Josh, Mira and the others all jumped out of the way avoiding the ice beam while Leo quickly dashed towards Josh and picked him up before quickly dodging the fire beam by just an inch.

"Wake the hell up damn it! Wake up!" Leo shouted as he repetitively slapped Josh across the face

"I'm up I'm up!" Josh gasped as he woke up "I suddenly blacked out...what happened!?" Josh asked as he looked around in a panic

"No time to explain, all you need to know is that we are in a battle right now" Leo explained before dropping Josh on his feet

Josh looked around and upon seeing the homunculus a disgusted look appeared on his face. "The hell is that!?" Josh asked

"It's a homunculus! Now get ready to fight!" Mira shouted while keeping her eyes on the homunculus

The homunculus arm stretched down to the ground, it stretched to as long as twenty meters in length. The homunculus then rapidly whipped its long arms at Mira in a fury of endless attacks, Mira held her sword tight and reacted to the fury of whips, successfully blocking them with her broadsword.

Aerin extended her right hand out towards the homunculus with her palm open. "Desert Storm Twister" Aerin mumbled to herself.

A large amount of sand swirled around the homunculus like a tornado. The sand cut both of the homunculus arms off before proceeding to rapidly cut the homunculus apart within the sand.

"Silver Steel: Mega Blade," Mira said as she pointed her left hand at the homunculus

A big magic circle appeared in front of Mira's hand and from the magic circle, the tip of a giant silver blade emerged before firing out of the magic circle like a bullet. While the giant sword raced towards the sand tornado, Leo commanded his flaming lions to fuse with the silver blade.

All four lions jumped into the silver Blade coating it in scorching flames. As soon as the flaming sword entered the sand tornado and plunged itself into the homunculus body, Aerin clenched her right hand which caused the sand tornado to explode with the homunculus and the flaming sword.

"Did that do it?..." Anne asked as she looked at the explosion

The explosion soon cleared out and the homunculus was spread out on the ground and torn up in large chunks, but it was still alive. Black tentacles sprung out of its severed chunks and reattached themselves back to its normal self.

"Looks like it wasn't" Aerin replied looking at the homunculus

"Be on guard everyone, it's going to attack again" Mira

Meanwhile

Claire and Emilia's group had their hands full fighting their homunculus. Although they had the upper hand, the homunculus wouldn't stay down no matter how many times they attacked, it was like an unbeatable zombie. Aemma and Nelly who were previously made unconscious due to Five's manna release were now conscious and helping in the fight.

While everyone was fighting, Claire was protecting Danny, who was sitting down with his eyes closed within a 'Fairy Sphere' that Claire created around him. Right now Danny's physical body was nothing but an empty shell. Danny was currently using a spirit spell that let him separate his astral body from his physical body, Danny's astral body had left the labyrinth in search of help from the teachers.

"This thing is so freaking scary...why won't it just die!!" Kogla complained as his body trembled in fear

"Koko get ready! I'll create an opening for you to attack" Hanako said as she held on tight to her wooden katana

"Right!" Koko said with a nod

Hanako raised her wooden katana in the air, gripping it with two hands "Autumn Style: Wind Breaker". Hanako cleaved her sword downwards causing a strong shock wave of wind to be fired towards the homunculus at high speed, the wind struck the homunculus and instantly broke its defence and staggered it.

Koko dashed towards the staggered homunculus at high speed, as she made her way towards the homunculus, wind formed around her left leg like a cloak "Piercing gale". Koko quickly came into range of the homunculus and as soon as she did, using her left leg she did a side kick straight into the homunculus guts and upon impact a sharp burst of wind shot through the homunculus body, tearing a hole in its stomach. Even after that, the homunculus did not fall, Koko quickly jumped back to a safe distance

"Is this thing immortal?" Koko asked

Looking around Nelly could see that everyone was getting tired and some had received injuries, Nelly put both her palms together, as if she was praying. As she did this her hands started to glow bright green "Healing Light". Multiple green balls made out of light manifested around Nelly, Nelly spread her hands apart before raising them in the air, which caused the balls of light to fly towards those that were injured and healing them by entering their body.

"I might not be a fighter...but by the grace of Solis, I'll make sure that none of you gets hurt!" Nelly said to everyone as she held onto her Sun God necklace

"And we are grateful for that!" Aemma said with a smile as she rubbed Nelly's head

The homunculus pointed its right hand towards the group before firing a beam of fire towards the group, before the beam of fire could hit the group Emilia quickly made her way in front of the group and pointed her wand towards the incoming beam of fire.

"Aqua Flash!". A blue magic circle formed in front of Emilia's wand and from the magic circle a high-pressure beam of water fired out of the magic circle and collided with the beam of fire, but that didn't last long as Emilia released more of her mana making her spell stronger, the beam of water overpowered the homunculus beam of fire before it struck the homunculus itself and drowned it in a large body of water.

"Ice Magic: Shooting Eyrie!" Aemma shouted as she pointed both her hands at the homunculus who was surrounded by a large body of water, a blue magic circle formed in front of Aemma's hand, and from the magic circle multiple eagles made out of ice fired out of it and struck the body of water slowly freezing it and trapping the homunculus in a massive ice sculpture

"Keep it up! Danny should be back with help anytime now!" Claire called out to everyone